Welcome Baby Gabe!

I started having labor pains on and off early Wed. AM. I got up at 5am thinking I would take a shower and walk around the house some and see if they continue. They then started coming every 5 min. I woke Justin and called the doctor and she said to come to the hospital so they could check me. When I arrived I was 2-3cm dialated and my cervix was completely thinned out. The doctor came about 30 min later to see me and said I was 5-6cm dialated. She explained that she wanted to break my water and start pitocin to progress labor as much as possible so the baby wouldn't be under stress and labor would be controlled and we would have MD, Pediatrician, Neonatologist all present. I was fine with this. I was happy to have the epidural. 30 min later, I was up to 8cm, but at that point, the baby had a major deceleration of his heart rate. I coulnd't see the monitor, but I think it went into the 50's and was having trouble recovering to over 100. The doctor came running in the room. There was a big discussion on whether to continue with labor or do a C-section. I really didn't want a c-section, but I didn't want to get into an emergent situation later on either. Because of his heart complications and the fact that he wasn't dropping down into the birth canal, we decided on a C-section. Justin was at my side and was actually able to watch everything above the drape. The baby came out crying and we both teared up. His initial Apgar was 6 and then it went up to 9 which I was really happy with. He weighed 7 lbs. 2 oz and 20.5 in. long. Pretty good size for being 3 weeks early. They let us hold him and then took him to the special care nursery to do full assessments. Later in the day I went to visit him in the nursery and the neonatologist said that they wanted to transfer him to Children's for closer monitoring because had a major drop in oxygen saturation while they were giving him a bath. We said goodbye to him and they transported yesterday evening to the Cardiac ICU. Justin went over with him and he's actually been doing pretty well. They're watching his PDA (valve connecting heart to lungs) to make sure it closes completely. He hasn't had anymore major desat episodes and is off oxygen. They'll be transferring him out of ICU today to cardiac stepdown. He has took 1.5oz formula this morning and did fine. I'm trying to pump and rest up the best I can. I'll be discharged today at 4pm and then go to Children's to visit the baby. We're hanging in there. Justin has been going back and forth from hospital to hospital. I can't wait to see the baby tonight. It almost doesn't feel real.